29 Jul DEVARIM: WAITING AND MOURNING

A group of people
spoke with the Brisker
Rav zt’l about the
tzaros the Jewish
nation was suffering,
and someone said, “We
need Moshiach to come
quickly to save us.”
One of the men present
whispered, “Moshiach
isn’t coming so fast.”
The Brisker Rav got
very upset. He called
this man to another
room and said, “How

can a Yid say such a thing?”
The Brisker Rav took out a Rambam and
read to him, “Whoever doesn’t believe in
Moshiach and doesn’t await his arrival, not
only doesn’t he believe in the Nevi’im – he
doesn’t believe in Moshe Rabbeinu’s Torah
as well.”
Reb Shmuel Wosner zt’l notes that the
Rambam begins his sefer (Yad Hachazakah)
with the obligation to believe in Hashem,
and he concludes the sefer with our belief in
Moshiach, and in between these two beliefs,
he writes all the halachos of the Torah. This
teaches us that the entire Torah is dependent

on these two beliefs.
The Jewish community of Brisk wanted
the Beis HaLevi zt’l to be their Rav, but
the Beis HaLevi turned down their offer.
Representatives from Brisk came to the Beis
HaLevi and pleaded, “Twenty-five thousand
people live in Brisk, and they all want you
to come be their Rav. Will you turn them all
down?”
Immediately, the Beis HaLevi agreed to
accept the position in Brisk.
The Chofetz Chaim zt’l said about this
episode, “The Beis HaLevi didn’t want to
turn down 25,000 Yidden. If thousands of
Yidden yearn and request for Moshiach,
Moshiach will certainly not turn them down.”
Rebbe Nochum Chernobyler zt’l once stayed
at the home of a simple couple. At midnight,
Reb Nochum cried and mourned for the
Churban Beis HaMikdash. The simple man
asked Reb Nochum why he was crying so
much and if there was anything he could do
to help him. Reb Nochum replied that he was
crying over the Churban and asked his host,
“Don’t you also want Moshiach to come and
return us all to Yerushalayim?”
The simple man replied, “I’m not certain. Let
me ask my wife about that.”

After consulting with his wife, he returned
and told Reb Nochum that his wife said they
couldn’t go to Yerushalayim because who
would care for their hens and livestock if
they moved to Yerushalayim?
Rebbe Nochum told him, “But we suffer
from the goyim all the time. Wouldn’t it be
better to leave and go to Yerushalayim?”
Once again, the simple Yid said he would
ask his wife’s opinion. He returned and said,
“My wife says that Hashem should take the
goyim to Yerushalayim.”
This story illustrates for us and reminds us
that the mourning has left our hearts, and we
don’t even know why we mourn.
The Tiferes Shlomo writes, “To properly
mourn for Yerushalayim, think about how
much holiness we lack, for we don’t have
a Beis HaMikdash and kohanim doing the
avodah. We aren’t close to Hashem as we
used to be.
Reb Shimshon Pincus zt’l (Galus v’Nechamah
p.147-151) writes, “If someone isn’t able to
mourn and cry during Bein HaMetzarim for
the Churban Beis HaMikdash and Galus
HaShechinah, he should sit on the floor and
cry bitterly about his personal churban which
is that he is unable to cry and that he doesn’t
care and cannot associate with the mourning

over the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash.”
The Yaavatz zt’l (Siddur Beis Yaakov, Tisha
b’Av, 6:16) writes, “If our only sin were
that we aren’t mourning sufficiently for
Yerushalayim, that would be reason enough
to cause the galus to continue. In my opinion,
this is the most logical and obvious cause
for all the tzaros we encounter in galus. We
never have respite from the Goyim, wherever
we live. And this is because the mourning has
left our hearts.”
Reb Yonoson Eibshitz zt’l (Yaaras Dvash
vol.1, p.253) writes, “We don’t feel the
Churban. We are like a fool that doesn’t feel
his pain. Some tzaddikim had a complete
understanding and recognized the dire loss
caused by the Churban. If we understood
how much we lost, how much perfection we
lack, etc., we wouldn’t want to eat or drink.
We would roll in the earth from distress.”